Synopsis

Plot

Gumball is getting bored and annoyed at how his new lucky hat allows him to succeed at everything he does. Even though he has been using it for a week, his family is unaware of its power. He demonstrates the luck at the dining table by catapulting a clump of his food in the air.

Through an extremely lucky chain of events, Richard's food gets launched directly into Gumball's mouth. Everyone at the table gasps in awe, except for Gumball, who just looks bored. He considers throwing it away, but Richard begs his son to let him use it to get onto a show called Win or Don't Win. Anais, being a firm believer in science, states the absurdity of a hat being lucky, but Richard completely misunderstands.
Before Anais can say anything else, Gumball plops the lucky hat onto Richard's head. The effects are immediate - the phone rings to tell Richard that he has been given a spot on the show. Nicole, like Anais, does not believe a hat, tin foil or otherwise, can grant luck to its wearer. She is quickly persuaded to the contrary, however, when Richard puts the hat on her. Again, the effects are immediate - Nicole receives a call from her company saying that they are considering her for a promotion and a pay rise. All she needs to do is ace an interview. Anais solemnly rings a death knell, believing that the obsession over the lucky hat will be the cause of doom for the Wattersons.

At school the next day, the kids practice gymnastics. Penny, being a cheerleader, performs flawlessly. While waiting for his turn, Gumball explains to Darwin that he wants a little failure in his life. He goes on to epically fail at the gymnastic stunt they were practicing, which gives him the satisfaction of failing, at the cost of great pain.

In their next class, he continues to explain why always being successful in life would be boring. He demonstrates in their science project - into an ant farm, he pours a "pinch of success", a "dash of failure", and then he mixes it together, and calls the result a great life. Figuratively beautiful, though in reality the two chemicals he mixed caused an explosion. As if being burned by the explosion was not enough, the ants cover every inch of his body and start biting him violently.

At lunch, he still continues to believe that failure makes life great. He tries to do the same trick he did at the beginning of the episode, but without the luck of the tin foil helmet, a chain reaction of Banana Joe bumping into William, causing him to become scared and crash into Tobias, which succeeds in ruining Tina's sandwich. In retaliation, Tina shoves Gumball into Darwin's mouth.

After that third display of failure, Gumball still tries to believe in how failure makes life interesting but breaks down crying instead. He begins wishing he had his helmet back, entering the beginning stages of obsession.

Back at home, Richard and Nicole are arguing over who should get to use the helmet. Richard and Nicole's appointments are, unfortunately, at the same time. Richard needs the helmet to win a speedboat, while Nicole needs the helmet to ace her job interview and get a promotion and pay rise. Nicole, explaining how her promotion would be good for the entire family, persuades Richard to give her the helmet. However, Richard changes his mind at the last minute and instead gives Nicole a plain old papier-maché helmet, keeping the lucky tin foil one for himself.

At Nicole's job interview, the panel of interviewers applaud at her perfect resume, though they chuckle at her funny paper mache hat. Nicole, upon hearing that the hat is paper mache, realizes that Richard duped her. Already starting to get angry, she turns on the TV and sure enough, there is Richard wearing the lucky hat and winning a boat. She goes on an all out rage, completely trashing the office. Because of that show of anger, her bosses turn her down for the promotion.

At dinner that night, Gumball, Richard, and Nicole all fight for the helmet, while Darwin and Anais look on in horror. After a few minutes of this fighting, Anais finally screams some sense into them. Richard and Nicole agree to let Anais get rid of the hat, but Gumball is still obsessed over it. When Anais takes the helmet from him, he goes insane, yelling and lunging at Anais. Richard and Nicole restrain their troubled son as a shaken Anais and Darwin watch.

Darwin and Anais resolve to throw the helmet into the garbage crusher to make sure no one can ever use it again. Unbeknownst to the two, Gumball was stalking them. As they trek up to the garbage crusher, Darwin gets curious and tries the helmet on. Instantly he finds enough jewelry and bling to cover his entire body. Halfway up the mountain, the treasures he has found become too heavy. Much to her annoyance, Anais ends up having to carry him the rest of the way.

At the summit of Mount Dump, Darwin runs to the garbage crusher to dispose of the helmet. Right before he is able to finish the job, though, Gumball ambushes him and takes the helmet back. He puts it on as Anais and Darwin corner him. They try to knock the helmet off by throwing random things at it, but they miss every shot. Gumball decides to retaliate with a tennis ball machine that was conveniently lying next to a power generator. At this point, Anais finally concedes that the helmet is lucky. Anais and Darwin duck for cover as Gumball opens fire on them. Darwin, refusing to let his best friend be consumed by the evil of the helmet, runs out of cover with a stale baguette, intending to deflect a tennis ball into the helmet. He succeeds, but not before getting knocked out by one of the tennis balls.

The helmet starts rolling towards the garbage crusher, with a panicked Gumball trailing behind. Gumball, unfortunately, did not make it in time to catch the helmet though he does, to Anais and Darwin's horror, jump in after it. All hope is not lost though - Gumball and the helmet are hanging off of adjacent branches. As Gumball reaches towards his helmet, his branch breaks, but Anais catches one of his hands. Despite this, he still keeps reaching over for the helmet. He succeeds in grabbing it, but Anais cannot lift him up without his other hand. After a few sentimental statements ("But-...but without it I'm nothing!" "Gumball, we're nothing without you!"), Gumball finally decides to let the hat go. The hat, instead of landing into the jaws of the garbage crusher, lands off to the side. Gumball, Darwin, and Anais again throw random things at the hat until it finally gets knocked into the fire.

Back at home, Richard drives the boat...on land. They need to continue doing so for 100 miles, in order to reach the beach, ruining the road and making quite the fools out of themselves as the episode ends.

Characters

Main Characters

Minor Characters

Trivia

This episode aired in Latin America on January 9, 2012, two months before the U.S. premiere.

This was the first episode based on an idea by the development team.

A rerun of this episode aired on Cartoon Planet's a hundred twenty-first episode on January 12, 2014.

Cultural References

This whole episode is a parody of the Lord of the Rings. The scene where Darwin and Anais throw the helmet into the garbage crusher is based on the scene in which Sam and Frodo journey up Mount Doom to destroy the Ring. The way Gumball behaved parodies that of Gollum, and the nature of the helmet itself is based on the evil power of the One Ring.

Goofs/Errors

Many errors occur during the scuffle for the helmet: at one point, Gumball's teeth become the same color as the background, his tongue disappears, Richard's eyelashes and whiskers disappear, and Gumball's hip becomes transparent.

Gumball's whiskers disappear on one side when the ants crawl over him.

In the scene where Nicole smashes the TV, Nicole's hand penetrates it before smashing it.

Darwin calls Richard and Nicole "mom" and "dad," even though in most episodes, he calls them "Mr. Dad" and "Mrs. Mom."

The food stain from when Richard tried to stop Gumball from throwing the helmet away overlaps the helmet.

[Gumball catapults a clump of his food in the air. Through an extremely lucky chain of events, Richard's food gets launched directly into Gumball's mouth. Everyone at the table gasps in awe, except for Gumball, who just looks bored]

Gumball: [Unamazed] Ta-da. Whoop-de-boring-doo.

Darwin: [Shakes flippers] WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! THAT WAS FAN-FLAPPING-TASTIC!

Gumball: Yeah, a week ago, maybe, but now it's just lame. [Put helmet on the table] I

think I'm gonna throw it out.

[Richard lurges towards Gumball and Darwin]

Richard: DON'T THROW IT OUT! [Becomes teary] I could really use some luck right now. I been trying to get on "Win or Don't Win" for five months but they're not returning my calls.

Gumball: Absolutely. It's the struggle that makes a victory sweet. Besides, I still got it.

[Gumball catapults a clump of his food in the air and hits Darwin's eyes, causing him to fall and bump onto Banana Joe. This causes William to fly up and knock Tobias's drink onto Tina and makes her drop her sandwich on the floor]

Anton: [Looks at sandwich] Butter side down, just like poor Uncle Eddie.

Tina: What do you know -- my lunch is on the floor. Hey, who's the funny guy who did that? [Darwin points at Gumball but Gumball pushes his fin down]

[Scene changes to the hallway where Gumball is stuffed into Darwin's mouth]

Gumball: [While in Darwin's mouth] And you know what the best thing about failure is, Darwin?

Richard: Oh... [Groans] No wait! [Richard catches up to Nicole and pulls out another bag] Actually, it's in -- it's in this one. I was gonna trick you. I'm sorry. I guess that helmet's got more power over me than I thought.

Nicole: Thanks for being honest, honey. [Grabs the bag and leaves the house]

In the Office

[Scene changes to a company building.]

Newspaper Employee: [Off screen] That was an astonishing interview.

[Scene then changes to an office where Nicole's bosses are going to employ her]

Newspaper Employee: There's... just one thing. [Laughs] You are aware that if you get the job, you won't be able to wear that papier-mâché helmet, right?

Nicole: [Laughs] Of course. But for the record, it's not papier-mâché. It's tinfoil.

[Anais then carry Darwin up the mountain while he sits like a king. Scene changes to the garbarge crusher, which then the mysterious figure appears again. Anais then lets Darwin down, while his jewelries fall off him]

Anais: [Panting] There. I've done my part. Now you do yours. Throw the stupid thing in the crusher.

Darwin: Okay! [Runs to the garbage crusher with the helmet] Well, good riddance!

[The mysterious figure, which turns out to be Gumball, jumps in]

Anais: Darwin, look out!

Darwin: Huh?

Gumball: [Jumps to Darwin with a raspy voice] Give me my helmet!

Darwin: Aah!

Gumball: The helmet's mine! Give it back to me! Give it!

Darwin: Dude, what's wrong with your voice?

Gumball: I just really need to cough. [Coughs then there's the sound of his normal voice] Better. [Snatches helmet from Darwin] Aha!

Darwin: No!

Gumball: [Laughing evilly]

Anais: Give it up, Gumball! There's two of us! You'll never win!

Gumball: Oh, yeah? [Puts helmet on and laughs evilly] I can already feel its power!

Anais: Well, not for long! Come on, Darwin.

[Darwin and Anais pick stuff up from the ground and starts throwing at Gumball. All of their attempts failed and Gumball continues to laugh evilly]

[Gumball then attacks Darwin and Anais with the tennis ball machine while they run to a shelter to defend themselves. Gumball continues to attack and laugh evilly]

Anais: He's got us cornered! What are we gonna do?!

Darwin: Pass me that stale baguette.

Anais: [Passes baguette to Darwin] Why?

Darwin: Don't you worry about it. Just tell Mom and Dad I love them.

Anais: What? But, Darwin, No!

[Darwin then hits a tennis ball back to Gumball in slow motion, but at the same time got hit too]

Anais: [In slow motion]No!

[Gumball continues to laugh evilly while firing tennis balls. However, the tennis ball Darwin strikes back hits the helmet]

Gumball: No! My power!

Anais: Come on, Darwin! He lost the helmet!

Darwin: [Gets up] Oh, cool.

[The helmet then rolls to the garbage crusher]

Gumball: [Chasing after the helmet] No! No! No, no! No!! [Falls to the garbage crusher along with the helmet]

Anais: GUMBALL!!!

[Darwin and Anais then gasp while looking at each other, then start to cry, only to realize Gumball is alive while hanging on a long rusty nail, and still trying to get the helmet stuck on a rusty nail too]

Gumball: [Reaching for the helmet] Almost... got... it.

Anais: What the -- what is wrong with you?!

Gumball: My helmet... I can almost reach it.

Anais: Give me your hand!

Gumball: No! I need the power!

[Gumball's shirt then rips off from the rusty nail, but Anais grabs hold of his hand]

Darwin: For goodness' sake, man! It's only a piece of tinfoil!

Gumball: But think of all the stuff we can do with it.

[Gumball then successfully grabs the helmet]

Gumball: Yes! Ha ha! Okay, you can pull me up now.

Anais: Listen, Gumball, [Panting] the helmet is powerful, but it's also evil.

[Gumball then looks at the helmet, then hesitantly throws it away to give Anais his other hand. Darwin and Anais pull Gumball up the cliff]

Darwin: Whoo.

[Gumball then watches the helmet falling into the garbage crusher. However, the helmet drops at the edge of the garbage crusher. Gumball, Darwin and Anais sigh, then starts throwing garbage at the helmet until it drops into the garbage crusher. Gumball, Darwin and Anais then celebrate and laugh with glee]

Epilogue

[Scene changes to Richard driving the Wattersons in the speedboat]

Nicole: Richard, are you sure this is a good idea?

Richard: [Laughs] Of course, honey. I said I'd use it, didn't I?

[The scene then shows the speedboat driving along the road, destroying it]